St. Joseph, flamingos and sombrero clad figurine recovered

A walker in Syracuse this morning discovered a cache of stolen lawn ornaments including a statue of St. Joseph, Hispanic lawn jockey, burro and plastic flamingos.

The items were discovered before the Otoe County Sheriff's Office received any theft reports, but St. Paulinus Catholic Church called in the missing St. Joseph statue as deputies were still gathering missing items.

Dan Swanson

A walker in Syracuse this morning discovered a cache of stolen lawn ornaments including a statue of St. Joseph, Hispanic lawn jockey, burro and plastic flamingos.

The items were discovered before the Otoe County Sheriff's Office received any theft reports, but St. Paulinus Catholic Church called in the missing St. Joseph statue as deputies were still gathering missing items.

After finding the cache near the barricades at the end of old Higway 2 east of Syracuse, deputies found other figurines, rabbits, discarded in Unadilla.

"Kids were out relocating lawn ornaments," said Deputy Greg Kotschwar. "We found the figurine of Joseph, the father of Jesus, set up there with the lawn jockey and burro," he said.